School Year 2012-2013

9th grade has been a busy one for Jentry.  She took a few hard classes this year that kept her on her toes.  She did amazing though.  Pulled a 4.0 for three terms (One term she got an A-).  I am so super proud of her!  At the end of the year we got a letter in the mail that one of her teachers had nominated her for an award and we were invited to an Awards Ceremony.  Jentry ended up getting an award for Technical Theater and the Golden Presidential Award.  (If only it didn't have to have Obama's signature on it...) She is definitely a smarty pants!  I don't know where she gets it.  Not from me, that's for sure!! 

She got her braces off this year and she was so so excited about it!  She has beautiful teeth and a great smile!  Jentry is a HUGE help around the house.  She will clean ANYTHING except for her bedroom.  She hates that chore.  For good reason.. Its usually a big mess!  Oh well, you cant be perfect in everything, right?  ;-) 

She had definitely gotten more boy crazy this year and I'm not ready for that.  I need a little bit more time to adjust to this stage of life... say another...10 years?  That should do it. 

I cant believe my baby is going to be in 10th grade.  HIGH SCHOOL!  When I pulled away from the Jr. High after picking her up from the end of the year Lagoon trip it was a little sad.  She is now a Maple Mountain Golden Eagle. 

 

Brinley also had a great year this year.  This year she was able to participate in the "Mini Society".  She had make her own business, pay for it, market it and hopefully make some "mini bucks" to use at her auction.  She had her friend, Haley, chose to do a fish pond and plinko.  I think they did pretty good at it!  Luckily the weather held out just long enough. 

I think Brinley has really grown up this year.  Not only physically (THIS GIRL IS TALL) but in many other ways.  She is becoming such a young lady!  I like her strong will (most of the time).  She doesn't back down on what she believes and she will let you know if she doesn't agree with you.  She's always been a little knot head and I think that will take her far in this life, actually. 

Brinley will be getting braces this coming year.  She is scared and excited, I think.  

She is a big help around here, also.  She has taken over babysitting the boys for me when I need a babysitter.  I think Jentry was more than willing to give that job up. She is a great babysitter too!  I usually come home to the boys having done their homework and she has actually played with them and taught them new tricks.  She just taught Chase how to hang upside down on the swing.  Gives me a little heart attack every time he does it!

 

The big first grade! Ty had such a great year this year. He loved going all day to school. He is such a great friend and I found many notes from his friends in his back pack through out the year. Actually, I just found one the other day that said, "Dear Ty, you are always so nice to me." I don't know who it was from but I thought it was super cute. He is his brothers best friend and Chase definitely missed him while he was gone to school.  Ty has really gotten into "beyblades" this year and has to earn all of the ones he has.  That's been no small task.  Those things are a little pricey for my liking.  But he will work hard for them!  He is constantly looking them up on Amazon to check prices and he is always asking me what jobs he has to do to get enough money to earn one.  This boy will work for beyblades! I got to go on a field trip to Thanksgiving Point with Ty and his class.  It was super fun and they had a great time! 

 

Chase sure enjoyed Kindergarten!  And I enjoyed my 2.5 hours of free time.  Though it seemed to pass too quickly.  He made a lot of new friends.  His favorite part of school was, of course, recess.  He absolutely loved his teacher and it took me a long time to convince him that her name was not Miss.  He thought all girl teachers were named Miss or Mrs and I could not convince him otherwise. I got to go on the Zoo field trip with Chase and we had a great time.  It was his first time on the bus and he loved it.  He had the option to ride home with me or on the bus...the bus won out.  When Chase brought home the pic of him holding the "Class of 2025" it brought tears to my eyes.  It wont be too long before he is graduating!  For goodness sakes, we are already in 2013.  I cant believe how fast time flies.  It just continues to fly even faster. 

 

(Sorry a lot of this was the same information that I posted on the last post but I wanted to add some pics of them on their first and last day of school.) 

 

 

Overwhelming...

Its overwhelming to even think about trying to "catch up" on here.  Its been almost a whole school year since I last posted.  With all the kids in school you would think that I would have found more time to do things like blog, eat my bon bons, hang out... but that hasn't been the case.  Actually every day gets busier and busier.  I used to only need a calendar in May when everything gets hectic with school programs, field trips, and other going on's...but now I find myself using my calendar every single day.  I have multiple alarms set on my phone to remind me of different things I need to do. 

Jentry is in 9th grade this year and wowzers... has it been a busy year for her.  She has taken 4 honors classes (I think it is).  She has done amazingly well.  Theres been some hiccups.  She didn't get a 4.0 one term (I think she got an A-) So that made her mad...but I think that's pretty ok.  She is excited to start HIGHSCHOOL this coming school year and start to drive.  She just recently really wanted to start working on her licence.  I haven't hurried it along.  I'd like to keep my car dent free and insurance money in my pocket. 

Brinley has been AMAZING this year.  I joked last night with Scott that I think she has progressed opposite.  She was a holy terror as a toddler.  I didn't think we would survive her...but she has turned into such a great girl.  I NEVER have to ask her to clean her room or do her homework or read her book.  (Homework used to be  one of our biggest fights...)  She is always looking for ways to help out.  I can ask her to do a chore and she doesn't fight me about it one bit.  ITS GREAT!!!  I think she is going to be a great teenager... (fingers crossed).  That's not to say she doesn't have a cow on her brothers sometimes.  Especially if they dare mess up her room or desk.  She is very meticulous about those things and it throws her for a loop if they aren't just like she left them... a little OCD?  Maybe...

Ty has loved first grade.  He is a little reader!  He has done really well with all day and he is pretty darn smart.  His best friend is in his class and I do feel a tad bit sorry for his teacher because that boy is a talker.  The first parent teacher conference the only "complaint" I got from his teacher was that he had the answer to every question she asked and she wanted the other kids to be able to answer before he did (Sometimes he would blurt out the answer even before the teacher was able to fully ask the question). 

Chase could take or leave kindergarten. He loves it when he is there...but getting him excited to get ready and go has been a challenge.  He would just rather stay home he says.  He is always asking if he can just have a day off.  With Chase being my last kid I have been able to go in to the classroom and help out with his class every month.  That's been fun to see how he is in class.  Chase is definitely my "fix it" man.  His ears perk up if he hears work/motors/ tools being used. 

Well hopefully next post Ill have a few pics to share... but I'm surprised Ive had the time to write what I did.  Hope it will suffice... the only reader I have... YOU, MOM!

Hiking the Y

I let my friend borrow my copy of Stephanie Nelson's "Heaven is Here" .  I really enjoyed it and I think this lady is amazing! 

Anyway, when I went back to get my book she mentioned how she had never hiked the Y and how it was amazing  someone who was burned over 80% of their body hiked it a mere one year after she was burned. Ive only lived in Utah for 30+ years so of course Ive never hiked the Y either.. Isn't that how it is. You live in a place and you never do any of the fun things you have around you.  So why couldn't two fatties like us hike it?!

 I thought it was a good idea. 

Why did I think it was a good idea?

 

Because it WAS A GOOD IDEA!  And I'm so glad we did it.  I thought for sure we might die. I thought for sure it was going to be HARD.  I thought for sure I would get half way up and have to turn around. 

But, I was wrong!  It was a lot easier than I thought.  It was a great hike and I'm thinking we might make it a yearly tradition to do it at the end of every summer. 

Chase only tried to kill himself twice. 

Scott had went ahead with the two boys.  When we got up there Chase saw me and started running towards me.  The trail at the top had sluffed off a little bit and he started to lean over, off the side of the mountain. He leaned so far I didn't think he would be able to correct himself and I thought he was going down.  He was able to catch himself and I don't think he even knew how close he was to falling off the side of the mountain.  Denise said how she thought there must have been angels pushing him back because there was no way he should have been able to correct himself.  He was leaning way too far.  I'm glad there were angels there because all I could do was freeze and cover my eyes.  Awesome mom award, right here!

The second time was when he went to sit on the top of the Y and he started to lean forward again.  He almost toppled head over heals.  Needless to say, I was ready to start hiking back down the mountain. 

Hopefully next year will be a little less "heart attacky"!

The Dinosaur Museum

When summer started to roll around I mentioned to the boys that one of the things we could do during the summer was go to the dinosaur museum.  I knew we wouldn't be going until August (2 dollar Tuesdays) so I shouldn't have mentioned it at the beginning of the summer.  They asked me at least 4 times a week when were we going for about a month and a half.  By August I think they had given up on me ever taking them.  But August finally came and off we went to the museum.  The boys were so excited.  Jentry, not so much...so she stayed home.  I had taken the kids a couple years before and they were not that impressed.  But the boys have really gotten into dinosaurs so I thought they were old enough they would enjoy it...and I was right!  They absolutely LOVED it!  I was so surprised at all of the stuff they already knew form watching "Walking With Dinosaurs" on Netflix.  Chase was naming off dinosaurs left and right.  Even knew what kind of shark was hanging above us at one time.  I was impressed.  They wanted to look at every exhibit.  They just loved it.  It was a great time and I'm so glad we went!

Cousin Camp 2012

This is one of the highlights of my summer!  For the last three years my cousins have all gotten together for COUSIN CAMP!  It is so much fun.  We have went different places every year and just hung out, shopped, got our toes done, ate, talked, laughed.... whatever we wanted..with NO KIDS!  Its so fun.  SOOOOOO fun. 
This year we went to Mesquite, NV.  And it was HOT!  108 degrees.  The wind felt like a blow dryers blowing in your face.  So we spent a good amount of time in the pools of anywhere there was AC.  We could basically do whatever we wanted.

On the way down there I had a feeling I was going to get a speeding ticket.  My foot is a little heavy.  Well right when we got on the free way after having lunch at Cafe Rio in Cedar City, Mr. Iron County Deputy paid us a visit. Luckily (or un luckily) I got a ticket but he only wrote it for 5 over...instead of the 88 in a 75 that I was really going.  4 hours of traffic school and 200 dollars later I'm still not over it and I use my cruise control a lot more now. 

We got to Mesquite a lot slower than I would have liked but the other girls said they didn't think it was as long of a trip as it had been for them in the past... We got our cute cousin camp shirts on for awhile and then jumped into the pool! 

That night Casey decided she was going to play on the tables at the casino while the rest of us went back into the room to do some real gaming..YAHTZEE!!  Let me tell ya, she missed out sitting at the tables all by herself.  We gave her a 1 hour time limit and told her she would be sorry if she wasn't back in the room in an hour. 

Well, she wasn't back.

So we went and got her.

We dressed in our jammies and got our nerdiest hair do's out and went to get her.  I put shorts over my pants and socks and flip flips.  Ashley did her hair like her mom would do it growing up and Mandy put in the pig tails and off we went.

We had to walk half way through the casino looking like this and calling out CAAAASEY!!!  Oh man, its a good thing most people are drinking in those things and hopefully didn't remember us by morning.  I have never in my life had so many people look at me with shocked looks on their faces.  Poor Casey...when she saw us about crawled under the table.  The pit bosses were cracking up (which I was glad about because I thought for sure we were gonna be in trouble).  We told her that her time was up and that she better get back to the room ASAP because if we had to come back and get her again...

We left the casino and went back to our rooms and she finally came back over.  It's a good thing she did.  She told us that the pit bosses were saying "Man, I wonder how much they have had to drink." and she didn't dare tell them that we didn't drink that was allllll under our own influence.   I guess you don't have to drink to look like dorks.

The next day we went and got pedicures.  Oh man was that a story in itself that probably is only funny to us so Ill leave that to our own memories. 

On the last morning at breakfast I broke it to my cousins that were driving home with me that we needed to pick up a few of my kids on the way.  They were staying in Fish Lake with my parents.  How was I to know it would be a 4 hour detour?  I don't think they were very happy with me.  But, we made it and Mandy got her pizza hut.... So it was all good.

I cant wait for next year! 

Swimming Lessons

This year the kids did great in swimming lessons!  They loved it!  Ty was a little nervous the first day when he realized there would be no life jackets.  (I don't take the boys swimming without them yet..) But then loved every second of it.  Next year I don't think we will do the city lessons.  There's a lady in town that does them at her house that Ive heard great things about.  I think we will try that!  I'm excited to see how much more they learn there. 

Escalante

I haven't blogged for so long I don't even know where to start so Ill just start going through my pictures and see what Ive missed.  I don't think I ever blogged about Scott repelling in Escalante.  They went to a canyon called Neon Canyon and did a few repels.  I WOULD NEVER IN MY LIFE do this. I'm so scared of heights, I just freeze.  So I think this is pretty cool that he had the guts to do this repel  ...  or repel at all for that matter! 

Youth Conference

Scott and Jentry went to Capitol Reef this year for Youth Conference.  They had a really good time!!  They got to go on a five mile hike and play in a natural water slide.  They both came home alive... Thats all I ask. 

Independence Day

We took another trip to Parowan (we really do love that place!!) for the 4th of July.  Theres just something about being in a small town for a parade.  Instead of getting handed anti-mormon literature (what we got last time we went to the parade in Provo) we got taffy!  Instead of seeing awesome floats (I did miss that part) we saw huge tractors.  We had a great time with Scotts family!  Most of his family came down and we had such a great time letting the kids run amuck wherever they wanted and the adults just chilling eating good food and having good chats!!!  Wayne (My brother in laws dad) was the Grand Marshal of the parade.  So that was pretty neat!

 

Pretty Boys!

 

So LOUD!

We also got our share of hair cuts!  Poor Jamie...She is too nice.  Everyone wanted their hair done and she was so nice to do it!  We love you Jamie!!!  Brinley got her hair CHOPPED!  And I'm so glad.  It was such a rats nest and Ive been trying to talk her into getting it cut for a few months now.  Finally she took the plunge and it is SO stinking cute.  She just loves it! 

tRaFaLgA

We went to Trafalga with my parents this last week. The kids had a great time on the rides and playing lazer tag.